Maxim Returns

An item listed only as “Concept Plan” on Wednesday’s Board of Adjustment agenda turned out to be a return appearance of Maxim Development, this time for an informal discussion of two South Avenue condo proposals.

Before Maxim principals Patrick Gawrysiak and Sal Carfaro talked about their ideas, newly re-elected BOA chairman Sally Hughes reminded the board that the developers were there only for a free-wheeling discussion that was non-binding.

“It isn’t a promise,” she said.

Maxim came before the board last summer with a proposal for a 64-unit condo proposal that was supposed to be the pioneer project for the transit village concept touted by city officials. The condos would have been within walking distance of the Netherwood train station and were geared to young professionals and older people no longer interested in maintaining large homes.

But the application foundered on what Hughes called “woefully inadequate” presentations by the developers’ experts and it was denied in September. Since then, Maxim pursued other plans in upstate New York and Connecticut.

The concept plan was heard late in the evening Wednesday, past the hour when the board normally takes up new items. About 25 people who came out for a hearing on a West Eighth Street subdivision had gone home by the time the Maxim matter came up, with only four residents lingering on to see what it was about.

Gawrysiak started off by noting the last time, “We probably weren’t the most prepared.”

He then showed a depiction of a proposed 32-condo building for 929 South Avenue, which he said was only 200 feet from the Netherwood station at the former Clem’s Ornamental Iron Works. Gawrysiak said there is only one parcel on the site that Maxim could not acquire, which is the Royal Construction show room. The developers would work around it, he said. The proposed new building would be set sideways on the site with a retail portion on the east side.

Lack of a retail portion was one of the reasons the board rejected the previous plan for 64 condos at 803 South Avenue. But Maxim still does not want to put retail on that site. That project would have both 1- and 2-bedroom units, while all those at 929 South Avenue would be two-bedroom units. The condos would sell for about $350,000.

Since the September denial, the Planning Board has completed a six-year examination of the master plan and added a lot of language about transit-oriented development that calls for greater density around train and transit hubs. Last summer, the Maxim proposal stood out as too tall and too dense compared to the rest of South Avenue.

But on Wednesday new board member Jeffrey Holmes said, “This is the right place for density.”

Among other topics, board members asked about control of the parking spaces so outside commuters didn’t slip in and condo owners didn’t sell of their spaces. Gawrysiak said the condo complex would be a “gated community” and the condo association would not allow spaces to be sold.

Forbidding owners from renting out condos would not be possible, but the association could have the right to approve any prospective renters. As far as retail uses, Gawrysiak said he wanted a Starbucks and a bank as possible uses, but no doughnut or take-out shops that would produce smells.

Asked about marketing, Gawrysiak said the company has a marketing study done in December. He said the two projects add up to around 100 units and within a five-mile radius, 1,800 condos have been sold.

The developers did not indicate when they might file an application, but foresaw construction completed within 12 to 18 months from receiving all approvals.

--Bernice Paglia